Mara Gay: Trump ‘Provoked’ L.A. Riots ‘Have Been Amplified ... Protests Have Been Largely Peaceful’

EXCERPT:

GAY: “I think in right-wing circles and among his base, that's certainly accurate. He's getting exactly the images that he wanted to show to kind of bring home to that base, to say, look at all these scenes of chaos, even though, of course, those have been amplified and the protests have been largely peaceful, and much of the violence has been actually, that does exist, has been provoked by the presence of officers on the streets that was completely unnecessary. Despite that, I think for a much larger swath of Americans seeing these scenes, they're seeing something very different. Watching the deployment of military, of Marines, against, you know, or in opposition to, or to even police average Americans who are peacefully protesting, exercising their First Amendment right, that sends a very different message. And I think longer term, what we're going to see is, this is probably a political miscalculation by Donald Trump because in doing so, in this escalation, this is no longer simply about immigration, at least in my opinion. I think that this is actually about whether we're going to have a democracy, whether Americans are going to be able to peacefully protest in the streets, which is not only a right, but for many Americans in this moment, is a responsibility that they feel.”